Cattle

The first animal we purchased for the farm was a cow from a friend that has a large dairy farm in the Musquodoboit Valley. "Cleo" bares a white map of Texas on her forehead is ½ Holstein and ½ Black Angus. We obtained "Cleo" when she was 2 weeks old.

Next came "Bella". She is also Holstein/Angus mix but more Angus than "Cleo". Her first 2 weeks of life were a little rough but she made it through . "Bella" is all black with the exception of one white sock on a hind leg and a splash of white on her belly.

Both cows are 2 years old and ready for breeding. They were 800 lbs before their 1 st birthdays and today each is over 1,000 lbs.

We turn our cows out with the horses in the spring and let them stay out spring , summer and fall till the end of November. By then they are ready to come inside, our girls like it inside once the weather gets colder.

Watching the cows and horses interact is nothing short of hilarious. The cows will travel the pastures with the horses until one of the horses decides to put the run to them. Cows are very deceiving as to how fast they can run, especially when being chased by a horse.

Both "Cleo" and "Bella" wintered well with their roommate "Sophie" (the goat). During the colder winter nights the cows would lay beside each other with "Sophie" snuggled up in between them.

"Bella" was bred via "AI" in early May, so far it appears the breeding took. We have yet to catch "Cleo" at the right time. Hopefully persistence will pay off and both cows will be expecting Moms by summers end.

We had to reinforce our fences with electricity over the winter . The cows continued to test the rails and actually broke out on one occasion.

Hopefully being Moms will assist them in finding themselves......somewhat!

Images of our Cattle
(Click on any image for a larger view)